Keyboard Font for LaTeX

Question

I'm currently writing a user guide containing a lot of keyboard shortcuts. I'm looking for a "keyboard" font where single characters or special keys (like tab or backspace) appear like the "real" key (i.e. with a box around; hope you get the idea).

Is there any package available for this or do I have to wrap one of the existing PS/TTF Fonts?

Answer 1

You can use the menukeys package which is included in texlive-full.

Example

\documentclass[a5paper,9pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{menukeys}

\begin{document}
 \section{The Manual}
    You can visualize paths \directory{/home/moose/Desktop/manual.tex}
    or menus \menu{View > Highlight Mode > Markup > LaTeX} or key
    press combinations: \keys{\ctrl + \shift + F} is for formatting
    in Eclipse.

    You can also visualize \keys{\tab}, \keys{\capslock}, \keys{\Space}, 
    \keys{\arrowkeyup} and many more.
\end{document}

Rendered

menukeys is included in texlive-full.

Answer 2

The keystroke package is your friend.

---

Update:

Sadeq's suggestion could be mimicked very inexpensively by the pgf/tikZ package.

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shadows}

\newcommand*\keystroke[1]{%
  \tikz[baseline=(key.base)]
    \node[%
      draw,
      fill=white,
      drop shadow={shadow xshift=0.25ex,shadow yshift=-0.25ex,fill=black,opacity=0.75},
      rectangle,
      rounded corners=2pt,
      inner sep=1pt,
      line width=0.5pt,
      font=\scriptsize\sffamily
    ](key) {#1\strut}
  ;
}

\begin{document}
  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Strg} The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Ctrl} The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Page $\uparrow$} \keystroke{Esc} \keystroke{F1}
\end{document}

---

Answer 3

Another free keyboard font is Linux Biolinum Keyboard. See the following graphic for an example:

Answer 4

the ones with Libertine:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{libertinekey}

\begin{document}

\LKeyStrg\ The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. \\
\LKeyStrg\ The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. \\
\LKeyPos\ \LKeyEsc \LKeyF{1}

\end{document}

Answer 5

Thorsten Donig's answer is excellent, and provides a free solution. However, if you are in need of a more advanced typographic solution, you may consider buying fonts specially designed to represent "keyboard caps."

One such font is the family of PIXymbols Shadowkey fonts. In my opinion, they are prettier (but much more expensive!)

Answer 6

As an addition to Thorsten Donig's answer I modified his \keystroke command to get a similar 3D style as in the keystroke package, which he suggested.

---

---

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\newcommand*\keystroke[1]{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(key.base), very thin, line cap=round, black, rounded corners=0pt]%
    \node [draw, fill=white, fill opacity=1, rectangle, rounded corners=2pt, inner sep=1pt, minimum width=1.2em, font=\scriptsize\sffamily] (key) {#1\strut};

    \begin{scope}[on background layer]
      \draw [rounded corners=1pt, fill=white] ($ (key.north west) + (-2pt, 2pt) $) rectangle ($ (key.south east) + (2pt, -2pt) $);

      \fill [gray!60] ($ (key.south west) + (2pt, 0.1pt) $) -- ($ (key.south west) + (-1pt, -2pt) $)
                  -- ($ (key.south east) + (1pt, -2pt) $)  -- ($ (key.south east) + (-2pt, 0.1pt) $) -- cycle;

      \fill [gray!60] ($ (key.south east) + (-0.1pt, 2pt) $) -- ($ (key.south east) + (2pt, -1pt) $)
                  -- ($ (key.north east) + (2pt, 1pt) $)    -- ($ (key.north east) + (-0.1pt, -2pt) $) -- cycle;
    \end{scope}

    \draw ($ (key.north west) + (0.1pt, -2pt) $) -- ($ (key.north west) + (-2pt, 1pt) $);
    \draw ($ (key.north west) + (2pt, -0.1pt) $) -- ($ (key.north west) + (-1pt, 2pt) $);

    \draw ($ (key.north east) + (-0.1pt, -2pt) $) -- ($ (key.north east) + (2pt, 1pt) $);
    \draw ($ (key.north east) + (-2pt, -0.1pt) $) -- ($ (key.north east) + (1pt, 2pt) $);

    \draw ($ (key.south west) + (0.1pt, 2pt) $) -- ($ (key.south west) + (-2pt, -1pt) $);
    \draw ($ (key.south west) + (2pt, 0.1pt) $) -- ($ (key.south west) + (-1pt, -2pt) $);

    \draw ($ (key.south east) + (-0.1pt, 2pt) $) -- ($ (key.south east) + (2pt, -1pt) $);
    \draw ($ (key.south east) + (-2pt, 0.1pt) $) -- ($ (key.south east) + (1pt, -2pt) $);
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\begin{document}
  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Strg} The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Ctrl} The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  \keystroke{Page $\uparrow$} \keystroke{Esc} \keystroke{F1}
\end{document}

Answer 7

As a supplement to Philipp's answer, I'm providing a MWE for the Linux Biolinum Keyboard font. You need to compile with xelatex or lualatex. The macros are given in the libertine documentation.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{libertine}
\begin{document}

First hit this key sequence:\LKeyShiftX{H}

Then hit these keys one by one:
\LKey{E}\LKey{L}\LKey{L}\LKey{O}\LKeySpace\LKey{W}\LKey{O}\LKey{R}\LKey{L}\LKey{D}

And finally hit the \LKeyEnter\ key.

You should now see the phrase ``Hello world'' on your screen.

\end{document}

Answer 8

Arkandis also provides 2 keyboard fonts, suitable for, I think, French keyboards. These can be used directly with Xe/LuaTeX.

Code is a hacked version of egreg's answer:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}% ref. egreg's answer at https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/23866/
\usepackage[landscape,textwidth=239mm,textheight=480pt]{geometry}
\usepackage{fontspec,setspace}
\newfontface\keyone{KeypadADF.otf}
\newfontface\keytwo{KeypadADFNo2.otf}
\newcount\charcount
\parindent=0pt
\doublespacing
\begin{document}

  \keyone
  \chardef\highest=\XeTeXcountglyphs\font
  \offinterlineskip
  \loop
  \makebox[35mm][l]{\strut\vrule\,{\normalfont\number\charcount}\hfill \XeTeXglyph\charcount}\hskip1mm plus 1mm
  \ifnum\charcount<\numexpr\highest-1\relax
  \advance\charcount1
  \repeat
  \newpage

  \keytwo
  \charcount=0
  \chardef\highest=\XeTeXcountglyphs\font
  \offinterlineskip
  \loop
  \makebox[35mm][l]{\strut\vrule\,{\normalfont\number\charcount}\hfill \XeTeXglyph\charcount}\hskip1mm plus 1mm
  \ifnum\charcount<\numexpr\highest-1\relax
  \advance\charcount1
  \repeat

\end{document}